Re: Mac Test Machine

I'm sure it has been talked about in earlier, and I've got the bit about
pixels being a dot on the screen that is the unit that screen resolution is
defined in, and that points defined in terms of inches or linear screen
distance rather than pixels...
But, why when i select font size 12 on a mac does the height of the font on
the screen varies depending on the font I choose, but with windows it is the
same height no matter what font I choose?
Thanks,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: bondard <bondard(at)tnuctip.com>
To: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2000 10:43 AM
Subject: Re: Mac Test Machine
>
> > > From: "Darrell King" <darrell(at)webctr.com>
> > >
> > > Anyone want to recommend a Mac for testing? I'm interested in a)
testing
> > > only compared to b) testing and use as a graphics development machine.
>
>
> > Mark Stradling went out on a limb and stated:
> >
> > Well for a) you will need three. One old PowerMac, one new iMac and one
new
> > G3/G4.
> >
> > Sadly this is required because of the way the MacOS handles screen area.
> >
> > Macs work off of screen size and not screen resolution like PC's (it's
just
> > one of those inherated querks
>
>
> Sorry Mark, but this is incorrect. The MacOS does not "work off screen
> size". It is only aware of the user-chosen screen resolution. If you
> choose a resolution of 1024x768, that's what you will get on all
> machines. If you choose to draw a table 512 pixels wide, you will get a
> 512-pixel-wide image sent to the screen.
>
> Now, the physical size of the image drawn on the screen depends on the
> size/distance between pixels (please read about screen "pitch" if you
> will, it's closely related), and that's a hardware property of the
> screen. You will easily see that if you have different screesn and you
> switch them between some of your computers, without changing computer
settings.
>
> This is why, on a 17-inch screen at 1024x768, the physical image will be
> smaller than on a 21-inch screen at 1024x768; this depends on the screen
> and *not* on the operating system. On the same 21-inch screen, if you
> are able to use a resolution of 2048x1536, the same 512-pixel table will
> be half as large as before. The same goes for fonts. If you don't find
> this obvious, just try, it definitely works.
>
> Again, all this is not dependent on your computer type or the operating
> system, but your screen hardware.
>
> If you go to the trouble of testing this and making this important
distinction...
>
> > Sadly this is required
>
> then you will not be sad any more :-)
>
> A single test machine is enough for web display purposes, including
> testing for different browser types and versions. The only reason you
> would want several is if you wrote software (like I do) and needed to
> test it against different hardware architectures.
>
> HTH,
>
> --Daniel
> Apple developer
>
> P.S.: what is an "inherated querks"? is it a mendelian borogrove?
>
> ______________________
>
> Daniel Bondard
> bbh - macdev
> bondard(at)tnuctip.com
> ______________________
>
> Interarchy WandForge
> ====================
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> Contact the author: <mailto:daniel(at)interarchy.com>
>